Mammoth Town Council talks cuts of police officers, Whitmore pool and more

Their attorney told them a bad contract started the whole problem in 1997, the Bankruptcy mediator said the Town now has a good deal to resolve its debt and Mammoth officials talked about deep cuts in the police department and other Town departments and closure of Whitmore Pool to come up with the money for payments demanded by a settlement with the Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition – a settlement in which Mammoth has to pay $2 million per year for 23 years.

A packed room at last night’s Town Council meeting mostly listened. Bankruptcy attorneys Michael Tuchin and Ken Klee explained the legal points of the somewhat complex deal that frees the Town from its troublesome development agreement but will change the face of government as the community lives up to its $2 million per year debt payments.

And it wasn’t cheap getting to this point. Assistant Town Manager Marianna Marysheva-Martinez said that since 2008 unti lthe present, Mammoth has spent 8.5 million on legal fees.

Perhaps the most dramatic presentation last night came via video-phone conference from Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris.

Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris mediated the settlement and explained via video-conference that it was good for Mammoth.

She was the appointed mediator for Mammoth and MLLA. The Judge spoke via a large screen behind town staff and lawyers. She told those in the room that the deal struck in mediation would save Mammoth Lakes “a lot of money. Bankruptcy is expensive,” she said. Judge Perris revealed that in the mediation process she finally made a recommendation for a fair settlement and both sides accepted it.

Judge Perris said she thinks the deal makes sense for Mammoth. Said the Judge, “It’s a 30% discount on a $43 million judgment.” Judge Perris also made it clear that bankruptcy is risky and that uncertainty will be eliminated. “There’s no reason,” she said, “to stay in bankruptcy.”

Reality hit home when Assistant Town Manager Martinez laid out the government restructuring plan to save enough money to pay $2 million a year to MLLA and other costs. She said the plan would cut 13 employees – 7 of those out of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. She said there would be no cuts to Tourism, Housing and Transit. No money would be taken from any of the voter-approved tax measures. Martinez said there would be discussions with employee groups on proposed reductions. She described a phased process of public meetings and decisions, with the first cuts taking place January 1, 2013.

Deiter Fiebigger, long time Mammoth resident, stood up to complain about the cut of seven police officers. “It’s a reduction of 47%,” he said. Many wondered how the police could function with such a small force. Assistant Town Manager Martinez spoke of volunteers helping.

Martinez said other cuts would include employees in parks and road maintenance. The plan also calls for closure of Whitmore Pool and Park. Outsourcing of IT services and other services will be considered. Martinez said other options include re-zoning of the Bell-Shaped parcel for possible development.

Council members talked about not liking the deal, but wanting to move forward and to concentrate on the positive. At one point Tim Flynn of Mammoth asked about personal responsibility for the horrible debt. Town Attorney Andy Morris said that the Hot Creek Development Agreement was problematic. “This development agreement did not have language in it that is common and typical of DA’s that wold have protected the Town. It would have taken a couple of sentences or a paragraph,” he said. Morris said the agreement should have said “The Town is not liable for monetary damages. That is a mistake that was made when the dA was drafted.”

About Benett Kessler

Always interested in writing, Benett was the editor of her high school paper, proceeded to the University of Chicago and then out West where she and John Heston formed Eastern Sierra News Service in Inyo County. They fed film to KNXT in Los Angeles and co-wrote and produced the first daily radio news in the Eastern Sierra. Their work ranged from a published news magazine to the first television newscast. They continued to provide videotaped news to KABC and other news outlets. After a seat on the Mammoth Times board and work as newswriter, Benett formed her own company, Sierra Broadcasters and launched an FM radio station, now KSRW and a broadcast television station, KSRW-TV33. The latest addition - Sierrawave.net. Her company motto: Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

129 Responses to Mammoth Town Council talks cuts of police officers, Whitmore pool and more

What if the town can’t make the payment in 10 or 20 years?
Another Ballas lawsuit?
Bankruptcy?
How can Mammoth agree to something they cannot guarantee or afford?
The judge has given you some bad advise but then it is not her money or her town, is it?
I guess her kids aren’t on the swim team either.
Keep the police and the employees and the pool and give Ballas what you really can afford, nothing!

This is very interesting!! Reading between the lines with the major cut to the force, closing the pool, road crew cuts, etc. My first emotion was What you can’t cut the force that much!! You can’t cut the pool…. what are you thinking. But then a thought came to mind that this may be a ploy for us all to potentially agree or scare us into agreeing to some other tax, measure, etc. at a later date. Just a thought!

It would be impossible for MLPD to provide 24/7 hour coverage with 10 sworn. They barely covered the town 24/7 with 15 sworn in 1986. I would really like to see a study from an independent analysist on what minimum staffing should be for MPLD based on calls for service, arrest statistics etc. I bet even 15 sworn would not be enough.

Cutting more MLPD officers is going to cause more problems for the town. They are already at min. man and can barely cover everything needed now. Unfortunately volunteers are not going to be able to do the same thing that MLPD officers can do. There will be law suits that volunteers cannot afford. Cutting other town employees is smarter!

What, if any, obligations do the county Sheriff and CHP have to increase their daily patrols through Mammoth, given these cuts to MLPD? I can’t imagine these other agencies won’t have to step things up, maybe by hiring some of the MLPD cops that get the ax. Would be curious if their answer is they don’t have to change anything, because that would imply that MLPD was over-staffed to begin with.

The Sheriff has no obligation at all to patrol inside the city limits of ML’s. They go off-line from 1am to 6am. They could and would respond in an emergency, but they would be doing so from their homes. The CHP will also back up MLPD officers in a pinch, but they might be 30,40,miles away. Mammoth cannot afford to loose ONE officer, let alone seven. Make the cuts elsewhere, or you’re looking at a disaster waiting to happen. Don’t forget how rowdy the village gets when the snow flies.

I didn’t see anything in the restructuring plan/ proposed budget about how much the attorney fees will be moving forward and the cost of employing 2 town managers. Is this something you can find out for us, BK?

Are we really going to cut 1.1 million from the police department ($900,00 from all other departments combined) and keep Steve Searles on staff? Its pretty clear that after the past weeks events with the mother bear being killed that DFG and MLPD can handle that job.

Im not discrediting Steve. The point I was trying to make is that if DFG, Steve and Mlpd all have to show up to a call and then to top it off a higher up from DFG has to come out of the area to make a final say, seems like money is being wasted somewhere.

Also just for the record, I’m not saying the cubs shouldn’t have been rescued. Just using this recent issue as an example.

Steve makes a lousy $50k a year with no benefits. Cops make $150k a year plus benefits. Nothing against them, and I wish I had chosen to be a police officer when I was young, but you really think cutting Steve is going to get us out of this mess? Also, compare the police budgets in similar towns to ours: It’s half of what we budgeted for. Cutting cops make sense to me. Have you read their reports? I’m sorry, but pulling people over for going 45 mph on Main St doesn’t justify $150k a year x 7 officers.

When I go anywhere out of this area and use public transportation, I pay for it and I’m not offended that they ask. Nothing is free and I expect that. It is still more convenient for me to pay a few dollars for transportation than drive around and pay to park.

Funny, you said “few would use it…even fewer than now”.
Maybe free transportation isn’t money well spent.

According to the Mammoth Times Dave Wilbrecht said before the meeting on Wednesday that a lot of the shortfall of services would have to be balanced by we the people. Sweet! I’d like to volunteer my time writing parking tickets concentrating mostly on handicap parking violations but also include fire lane violations and those who congest parking lots by parking outside of painted parking stalls, example Vons. Could this free up police officers and bring in some cash for the town? I’d be lying if I said that wouldn’t get any satisfaction out of it.

Too bad Dingo, you would not be able to cite anyone outside a parking stall at Vons, there is nothing illegal about it (private property). Law only cover handicap and fire lanes on private property. That is why I park outside of the painted lines at Vons all the time.

As a long time visitor to Mammoth Lakes and a business owner, I do not think you can cut a police force and backfill with volunteers. Volunteers are not loyal or dependable. They work when they want to and not necessarily when needed. They tend not to want to work holidays, nights, busy weekends, and when they agree to work, they often change their mind at the last minute and you cannot depend on them. Not to mention, the turn over is substantial. This would be a huge liability for the town to have them doing such important work as law enforcement.

I think volunteers can be just as commited or even more so than police officers who are constantly being demorailized by a a hostile community. But I do agree that using volunteers for real policing is nonsense and I doubt most people are interested in volunteering to deal with the drunks, drug peddlers, and thieves that abound in every community.

Yes, lets leave the tourism department as is “Mammoth – Please Come Visit and be raped and pillaged on our fabulous free bus system.” Are you F-ing kidding me town council? 7 police officers? We might as well just unincorporate. Now I’m officially scared.

Why not cut tourism dept? It’s not like they do anything any way. Lest you all forgot, our previous Toursim director was recently caught stealing millions from his gig down in Florida (and then committed suicide). Seems more reasonable to let MMSA cover tourism then expect Mono Co Sheriff’s and CHP cover town law enforcement.

One possible way to reduce the costs of the payoff is for the town to ask voters to approve a bond issue that will pay off the judgement. I would bet that tax free municipal bonds will cost the town far less than the 5 percent interest in the negotiated deal. As anyone who has refinanced a house knows, a small decrease in the interest rate can make a big difference in the yearly payment and the total paid over the life of the bond.

The bankruptcy filing will be withdrawn, based on this settlement. In a year or two, when the economy picks up — higher property tax revenue, higher sales and bed tax revenue — TOML and its citizens would be foolish if they didn’t at least explore how to refinance this debt at a lower interest rate.

Where is the leadership and shared hardship by the town council or town managers staff? Do the right thing for the town, cut your own benefits / compensations and personnel. You really going to try to use public safety and the children programs as hostage?

Last nights smoke and mirrors failed to justify the tens of millions of dollars spent on an airport that the business interest have and still insist on. Face it folks, the airport has resulted in this our biggest failure to date. The mushrooming cost have and will continue to be passed on to the taxpayers. Missing in the room last night was the corporate elephant that helped get us into the commercial airport / subsidy business, with the help of this and past town councils. I felt a little empty without the investor class are watching, we need a 5-0 spiel.

The whining about the one dissenting vote spoke volumes.

Are we going to listen to same no fault or blame song and dance by yesterdays styled politicians? These boys helped to buy this elephant, now they deny any responsibility or knowledge of how much it would grow, eat or crap. ( the burn rate ) The failure to take responsibility is a glaring problem. They’ll need to pass the hat once again to continue their support for the airport, it’s just around the corner. We’re being led down that path to our wallets once again.

Jeopardizing the towns public safety by the proposed cuts to Mammoth Lakes Police Department is irresponsible. Raising the dollars for the MLLA payments using program cuts is nothing more than political blackmail. These folks have no new ideas, just excuses for needing to take another bite of the tax apple,covering for the past, present, and future financial incompetence.

Two million a year for twenty-three years “it’s nobody’s fault”, don’t blame yourselves or hold anyone accountable! Now doesn’t that feel better!

I love when bureaucrats talk about “development” as a way to increase revenues. There’s already enough development in Mammoth, now the “Bell Shaped parcel?” This so-called development is what got the TOML in this trouble in the first place.

Let’s see: Eliminate 7 police officers, 3 community development employees, one parks
maintenance employee, the one and only IT employee and the budget manager (who was actually canned three months ago).

Pretty soon, the only employees left will be the two $200,000-a-year “town managers” who, with their benefits, cost over a half-million dollars a year. Then, when they may have to do something besides firing people, they’ll probably move on to screw up another town or county.

Does TML really need two high-priced town managers now that it has been whittled down to almost nothing? Couldn’t one good one be found at much less than $200,000 plus benefits?

And how about the untouchable crew at the airport and their manager? Couldn’t they give up a position and get a volunteer to play the fourth pinochle hand? Or are they needed to handle the thousands of additional “enplanements” that Gregory, Pickett and Urdi like to dazzle the Four Horsemen and Lizzie Borden with?

May God bless the 13 men and women whose jobs are being “eliminated” – and may God damn the unconscionable parasites and incompetents who, over the past five years, have sacrificed so many employees and so much public money, all for the sake of air service that will never amount to anything!

No one will like this one! We live in a very safe community. While slashing the Police is drastic it is also probably necessary. MLPD is such a slow Police Department, so slow you will see the Officers at the Post Office collecting their mail, driving their kids to school in a marked unit every morning, in fact shuttling their kids around town in a marked unit. Calls for service have never jumped off the chart.

Years back when we had a forward looking infrared (FLIR) unit mounted on a turret atop a police unit, what the hell did we need that $30,000 plus toy for? Our arrests are mainly for misdemeanors, hell I would like to see them slash the DA’s office as well. Remember the times they were using a Breathalyzer for a kid on a bike, let Darwinism weed that drunk atop a Bike out from society. The new units that the Chief and Lieutenant are driving around in, make do with the old ones you had.

They are going to have to work on a skeleton crew, they are going to have to be reactive instead of proactive, but we live in a community in which things are not going to spiral out of control. If a major crime goes down they will have to break from what they are on and respond, our town is maybe three miles by four miles, it won’t take long for them to get there.
The TOML will enter into an agreement with the Sheriff and CHP for mutual aid, we will pay for it, but we are a community and we will survive.

I will predict our community is going to be effected, but not by much and that we will hear a lot of propaganda from the remaining Officers who will be forced to work harder. I only wish we would be able to layoff the ones with more seniority then the guys at the bottom.

Realize as a person 9 times out of ten, even with a large Police force you are on your own to defend yourself until help arrives and even then the Police are not always going to save you. We still have a Fire Department and dedicates Paramedics to help. We still have our neighbors to lean on. This is simply the smartest thing for the Town.

I’d like to respond to the comments from Reality Bites and some of the others who believe the Police Department can function effectively with 7 fewer sworn personnel, a 46% reduction. Reality Bites is correct that police officers are not busy all the time. The best way to explain this is to look at our public safety partners in the fire service. Mammoth Lakes, and most communities have very few fires. They don’t often have to respond to car crashes to rescue people. This means they have a lot of free time during which they train, maintain their equipment, and in the evenings, relax. And yet no reasonable person would suggest that fire stations shouldn’t be fully staffed. If your house catches on fire or you are broadsided and the car you’re in rolls over and you’re trapped, you need a well trained and properly equipped Fire Department to respond immediately. Having that level of protection is a price we are all willing to pay.

There are many similarities in police work. There are periods of time when there are no calls for service or activities requiring a police presence. The difference is that when available, police officers are on patrol, enforcing traffic laws including DUI, stopping and questioning suspicious persons, conducting bar checks, providing a visible presence which prevents crime and other activities that help to keep Mammoth the safe community you’ve described. And yes, it also means they can stop at the Post Office and pick up their mail. As for driving kids to school, I got a complaint about that 2 years ago and I’m not aware of it occurring since.

We never know when things will break loose. We are in the shoulder season, the slowest time of the year. Two weeks ago, on a Saturday Day shift which is usually very quiet, all hell broke loose. Within a short period of time, we had a robbery, an overdose that was nearly a fatality, a DUI crash where the driver ran from the police resulting in a foot pursuit and search, and other calls which resulted in no response. The two officers working were overwhelmed. They were held over and the evening shift came in early. This was not the norm by any means, but a police department, like a Fire Department, has to be prepared for the abnormal.

Police officers work in teams. They don’t ride together, but they are trained to approach many incidents in pairs or more. We currently have two officers on duty at all times, and four in the evening. The proposed plan will require there being times when only one patrol officer is on duty and most likely never more than two. There are many realistic scenarios where the proposed level of staffing simply doesn’t work and that results in additional risks to the public and the officers.

As for mutual aid, we already have it. I’ve spoken to the Sheriff and he doesn’t have the staffing to provide additional deputies to Mammoth, even if we paid for it. They currently have no one working patrol from midnight until 6 am. The CHP has two officers working all of Mono County during the early morning hours. We are an isolated community and cannot count on additional law enforcement resources in a timely manner.

The Council has the difficult challenge of paying for the settlement. They have asked for community input and there are many competing interests. An adequately staffed police department is only one of many priorities that must be considered. The Council is seeking public input and wants to hear how the community feels about the many hard choices made in their restructuring plan. I hope the community voices their opinions.

Regardless of the final decision on where the reductions will occur, the members of the MLPD, however many that will be, will remain committed to providing the best level of service that they can provide.

Good post Chief, I am not a Mammoth resident, but I was concerned with the comment on coverage with the council’s proposal of only having one officer. I have been outspoken on some issues regarding law enforcement, but I am not anti law enforcement.

I know it is only a proposal, but I can’t understand them even considering it as a proposal. Not just for public safety, but for the officer’s safety! Is that one officer and one supervisor, or one officer solely on duty for the shift.

And especially on the night shift. You never know when you need back up, things can happen now!

We have the highest taxes in the nation here Chief, and they are about to go even higher. We pay the state $100B each year. Yet you paint a picture of government poverty, in which we cannot count on county Sheriffs – whom we pay – any more than CHP – whom we also pay – to help cover MLPD, currently the single biggest item on the Town budget.

Education is being cut, law enforcement is being cut, I’d think that instead of penning essays to the overburdened taxpayers, public safety officials might turn their energies instead to Sacramento and lobby on the citizens’ behalf to remind the imbeciles that the first purpose of taxes is safety and education, not whatever mindlessly infantile garbage they’re spending $100B per year on like bullet trains to nowhere. We have plenty of revenue Chief. Our leaders simply don’t know how to manage it. Lecture them, not us, because we’re too busy working our tails off to pay our taxes.

I never stated that the minimal staffing levels would provide effective levels of service. I personal believe with full staffing your department is unable to provide effective service. My statement is that this is the reality that has been placed before us and we as a community can make it through. Your minimal staffing levels are going to put your department to the test. Your Officers will have to push through and operate on minimal staffing.

How many robberies total did we have last year? Were your officers able to administer drugs to the OD victim and transport them to the Hospital? Even in the bigger cities calls will cluster and go unanswered. Is this not true? With some departments, victims will wait days for a response for calls a serious as Burglary. Sometimes DUI crash suspects run and get away. Is this not true Mr. Watson? It does not mean it is the end of the world. It is the reality before some communities.

As far as making the derogatory remarks about specific Officers, you may believe that I just don’t like cops. Well that is not the case, my dislike for certain personal of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department is from a knowledge of misconduct by them. In the past two years since the complaint of an officer driving his kid to school it has continued to occur on a weekly basis sometimes daily. You were made aware two years ago and someone in your department thumb his nose at you.

This is what I am trying to get at, You always seem to defend to professionalism of your department, that is a Chiefs job. But what happens when the men of your department police in a manor they see fit? What happens when a local female Business owner calls to report a male with stalking type behavior? What do you think of the response from the Detective assigned when the first words out of his mouth to this well respected woman is “he is a war hero and my friend!”, how far do you think that case went? Have you taken the time to speak with the local court translator to get an understanding of the Latinos true view of the local Police? There may be support for the PD but their is also a large group that flat out does not. And your response will more than likely be, I am not aware of these incidents! The problem for the CIVILIAN in areas like this is that even a well respected individual of the community does not want to go against the powers that be. It can have devastating effects on your loved ones, your kids, who in no way shape or from have done anything bad, but now find themselves answering a cop they do not know “Yes, so and so, is my father or mother”.

I see the dog and pony show of trying to have community meetings with minority groups but have you approached the public defenders to see what their opinion of some of your men?

Police work is not easy, and it is even more of a challenge in a small community. Much of the reputation and dissent for the MLPD comes from the unprofessional actions of some of your Officers.

One bad apple ruins the bunch!

My advise Dan, is to truly try to look at the Department as not only a Chief but as perhaps as a civilian, I do not know if you still have that in you.

@ Steve…I would 100% agree with that. Do you think the Chief will really take a cut in pay when he is so close to retirement?? .. Not a chance.
If he does I would be very surprised.. Remember it is all about retiring and bringing in the “Giant Pension” This is what the TOML can’t Afford

Sorry I just realized that the Chief is working on his second Pension ..He already get his first pension after retiring from Pasadena.. Must be nice to retire to Mammoth Lakes with a Pension in the pocket while bringing in another check for 300K per year .
Now you know why the taxpayers will never win…The system is Rigged.

There is no problem?? What happens if everything goes to hell?? You think he is going to kick his kid out on the side of the road….in winter??? How much does it cost us to have him shuttle the kid around??? What if someone shot at his unit with her in it, you never know when he may drive up on an unknown problem.

I am not against it in theory, but it seems the Chief already told him not to do it.

Others have suggested that the threat to cut the P.D. is a veiled threat to the citizens so that when the T.C. suggests yet another tax, everybody will agree and pay even more money out of their pockets to run the town.

First the T.C. said there would be no cuts to essential services and then they cut essential services. It seems to me that the town should just operate as they usually do and default on the payments to MLLA and Ballas. Then when they take us back to court, tell the judge, “…see, we are bankrupt…. sorry…”.

This Council & Community need to face reality and create a budget that makes sense. Cutting our police force in half and closing parks is not the answer! There is $5 million dollars of discretionary funding available to pay a $2 million dollar annual debt. What other resort community pays for 100% of their marketing out of tax dollars? I’m not saying that marketing is not important, however our business community needs to step up and help pay for it (including the Man in Black). Housing & Transit could both be reduced. I voted for both Measure R & Measure U, not to fund trails planning, but to build recreation facilities and have more recreation programs for my children. I voted to have playground equipment and parks facilities maintenance. My government should be providing public safety and street & facility maintenance. Measure R & U could (and should) be used to fund our recreation programs and parks maintenance. This Council is refusing to make the hard decisions. We live in a different time, and political committments made years ago must be addressed. We should look carefully at a $2 ticket tax…If that cuts into Rusty’s bottom line, so be it. Face it, we have just closed the door to a decade fight with Ballas and it’s time to move on. We (the community) need to put our priorities in order and decide what is most important and use all of the available funding to make it work.

I am friends with a Mono County deputy and he told me the department does not want anything to do with Mammoth Lakes. They think the people and council are nuts. They currently get off at midnight and most of them live in Gardnerville, NV. They do not want to have to work 24 hours a day and none of them want to work or live in Mammoth.

Mammoth got rid of MCSO years ago for a reason. They wanted deputies in town for it’s citizens. Sometimes the only deputy may be responding from Lee Vining or worse Benton. The response times will be substantially delayed. Deputies have zero connection with this community.

Not to mention, they hate Steve Searles and do not allow any of his ideas in areas like June Lake for example. Ask Sheriff Scholl why they don’t like Steve and you will get the run around. Ask Steve about why he doesn’t work n June Lake. He will tell the truth. It’s because the deputies just shoot their bears. Can you immagine how the people of Mammoth will react when their beloved two baby cubs are shot and Steve cannot go to bear calls.

Be careful what you wish for.

Get rid of affordable housing and free buses. Recall the idiots on council and get Rusty to tax lift tickets a buck of two. I seem to think Rusty didn’t want the development agreement and the town followed his lead, that’s what got us to this nasty lawsuit.

This one is for reality bites!!! Do u think people r going to pay top dollar to come to mammoth only to get mugged at night…do a little research before you speak, read the broken window theory, its proven time and again….what do you think will happen when people find out police will not be there to take care of the little things…I’m glad I left mammoth, I sure wouldnt want to be there after dark especially during the busy seasons…to the mammoth public, stay in doors after dark.

This is what it all boils down to. We want to have a top notch tourist destination here but not provide essential services when they get here.

I agree that Mammoth for the most part is a safe place to be but we do have drugs, crime, dui’s,etc. Just wait and see what happens when the cops don’t have the time or man power to be proactive. Then who will want to bring their families to Mammoth?

It is kind of scary at first, out at night in the dark, noises and all. “Lions and Coyotes and Mama Bears, ooh my!” I can see it now, bus loads of parolee’s are going to flock to Mammoth to prey upon the “night walkers”.

Move the county seat from Bridgeport to Mammoth Lakes.
(as it should have been years ago)
Bridgeport could keep the jail and open the historical courthouse to tourists.
An unbelievable amount of money would be saved.

I am not sure, maybe Bennett can answer this, but I believe mammoth cannot become the county seat because it is incooporated and there are more communities within this county besides Mammoth to consider

The county seat should always be where the money is generated. Bridgeport is a ghost town (similar to Bodie) that cost county taxpayers plenty because of its remoteness (and a dangerous, senseless commute in the winter).
It makes no sense to have the county seat there.

By your logic, then we should move from Sacramento to Los Angelas, from Carson City to Las Vegas, from Salem Ore. to Portland. Bridgeport is far from a ghost town. Why must you insult us. It serves no purpose. It simply shows how small minded you are. Oh and they are sure doing a lot of construction here in this ole ghost town. Without getting lost in your insulting garbage, I still pose the question. I don’t think Mammoth can become the county seat because it is incorporated. I could be wrong.

I have lived in town for over 5 years and have ridden the free transportation only a few times. I would not have a problem paying $1 each time either. When I travel to areas where public transportation is a part of life, I have to pay. Maybe have a monthly pass of $10. That is not unreasonable.

Cutting cops in town and thinking you can backfill with volunteers is unreasonable.

The Town Manager and the Assistant are City employees recommending cuts to the City Council who make the final decision. It is important that we as town citizens convey to the Council our ideas on cuts.

I agree with both Jen and Reality Bites. My heart goes out to all the folks with the Town who have or will be laid off, but the Police Department is the first place that needs to be cut. There just is not enough crime in this small Town to justify the size and cost of our Police Department. And as Jen (and The Sheet) pointed out, our PD budget is not comparable to other towns our size.
To think all of this could have been avoided if 8 simple words would have been drafted into the development agreement: “The Town is not liable for monetary damages.”

Other towns our size don’t have an influx of 20,000 people every weekend in the Winter.

We should be increasing the number of officers not decreasing. We can’t even control speeding on our roads as it is. And what if there is some sort of emergency? Fire, bus crash, earthquake, plane crash? There are more than a few reasons to have an even stronger Police Department.

I wonder if the City Council will take personal responsibility for any injuries or deaths or property damage that occur because of a diminished P,D.?

lives2ski, it is a different town in the wee hours of the morning when the bars are closing. Over-consumption of alcohol and perhaps other substances create danger for the drinkers, those around them, and the cops. In my opinion, our cops earn every dime.

Most likely, the town will attempt to shift the burden of the settlement from the town’s general fund to a bond measure that gets added onto property taxes. In this case, there won’t be a gaping hole in the budget and further deeps cuts in services. And frankly, services are critical to a resort town so cutting back on police and other *essential* services is a bad idea. The airport and other non-essentials should be fair game though.

I think this lawsuit and other airport snafus (sprung structures in violation of FAA agreements, hangars too close to the runway) prove the town should has no business running an airport. And as much as I love the idea of jet service, ice rinks, and other amentities, I believe Mammoth Lakes has over-reached in a never ending pursuit of tourist dollars — most of which accrue to the mountain not our tax coffers.

If there is a bond measure proposed, I fear to think what the interest rate will be. A Mammoth bond will surely be rated as junk unless another entity like the state or county can help underwrite it.

But seriously, who would invest in or secure a bond floated by a town that has proven financially wreckless time and time again?

I hope the era of town council foolishness is over. But when I see foolish notions like wasting 250k on a vanity gateway during times of financial distress, then it seems like nothing has changed.

This is about ridicoulous! The Town has ony so much money. You The Community need to come forward and tell (or guide) our Town Council! Stop complaining and come forward to say what it is that you want!

Chief Dan Waston makes a lot of good points. Mammoth doesn’t have the police, sheriff and highway patrol all doing figure eights around three bars all night long like Bishop does. But I think the chief needs to be prepared to make some cuts and find some volunteers to back them up like the fire dept. does. Anybody notice the price of food has doubled this year?

Mammoth needs to take a lesson from the city of Camden, NJ who decided to cut Get Rid of its Unionized police force, many residents have come to resent a police force they see as incompetent, corrupt and doing little to make their streets safe. that has sucked the city coffer dry. and replaced it with a non-unionized force freeing up tens of millions,
the city of Mammoth is simply out of money, out of options, out of patience. 🙂

Slashing public safety in half but maintaining FREE bus service for all? Seriously? I do not understand the town’s priorities.

Public safety is the core service a community should provide for its citizens. Everything else is a luxury. Cutting your core service in half while maintaining other far less important services is utterly irresponsible.

I have been in Mammoth for about a year full time now. I was a police officer for 10 years full time in LA area, a reserve officer (unpaid) and jailer before that. I have been in business for about 10 years and have done well with a business I started out of a bedroom in 2001. I can live anywhere I want in the world. I live in Mammoth right now and plan to build a house here ( i have been coming up here for 30 years). When we get good Internet speeds (digital 395) I may start another business up here. I would probably have to build a warehouse to suite my needs (Sierra biz park maybe?). None of this relates to tourism and maybe some good jobs might get created up here from my efforts.

However, if the community feels unsafe or has a perception of not being well policed by a professional department I can assure you I would think twice about building a house or starting a business in the Mammoth area. Others would share my thinking.

As a cop I worked in really bad areas and really nice areas. The nicer areas had better economic growth, better jobs, looked nicer, and were where the strong businesses wanted to be. As my businesses grew I kept them in nicer areas so I had access to nicer places to eat and live etc. My employees were happier as a result of being in a good area. They worked harder and we grew as a result. They did not want to commute or work in a unsafe area.

Economic growth is a positive feedback loop and good policing of an area with very fast and effective police services is a critical part of the equation. One of the reasons I chose to build my next house up here is the fact Mammoth has a hospital, an airport, and effective fire and police services.

If you screw with the already understaffed police depart and “break it” for lack of a better phrase all my other plans need to be reevaluated. Maybe it is not smart of me to invest so many eggs in Mammoth. Maybe other people who had plans up here start thinking the same way. A weak police department does not promote healthy economic and community growth.

I don’t mind paying some small tax if it keeps the town well policed. That money comes back to the community from the growth a safe environment encourages.

Mark we spend enough arresting people for ridiculous reasons.
Maybe if we used the resources wisely and stopped wasting them on a cause that offers no real solution we might not be such a bad predicament.
Like the “war on drugs” a utter failure! I understand those that enforce the laws can’t say that. because who wants to put food on the table and say “hey what I do hurts more people then it helps when i put them away for simple possession”. Most cops are good people so why would they admit to that when that is a big part of there job.
The war on drugs started against the Chinese workers that were building the rail roads. Gov’t outlawed opium but come to find out middle aged white woman were the main users of opium so they outlawed how the Chinese used it, so they outlawed smoking it!
Then they turned to Marijuana a substance Mexicans and Indians utilized for thousands of years in fact in our current justice system our founding fathers would be serving 10 -40 years!!!!!!!!

mammoth was best in the early 80s,now it sucks,it used to be a brown bag and duct tape ski resort for true skiiers,now that its attempting aspenization,its falling apart,so lock your doors and embrace your meth dealing neighbor

wow,cut the police force and no more whitmore pool,on top of paying 2 mil a year to mlla,and no improvements to the airport,things are realy looking up for mammoth in the future,congratulations to the town coucil and everyone involved with planning mammoths expansion

In 2009 the city of Half Moon Bay was found in breech of contract with a developer for the tune of $18million. This is the size of their annual budget. They flirted with bankruptcy but made cuts and turned policing over to the sheriff’s dept. They are now going to ask for a half-cent sales tax to meet some of their costs. The city council was split on this.

Half Moon contracted with the Sheriff for about half of what their PD cost them. I like having our own police force but, the reason the Sheriff or CHP can do it cheaper in contract is you do not have to have ANY overhead like a $250+ Chief, 8 support personnel, or even a station if that’s what’s laid out in the contract. The contract could just pay for the meat and potatoes with a couple officers per shift. The other advantage to this route over a one man PD is that when trouble strikes, the larger agency can shift/recall personnel around to deal with the issue.

Not to mention that a larger agency ALWAYS has a supervisor available somewhere to field questions. If you field a single officer and he cant control the situation by himself or without supervision, he will have to escalate his use of force options and may possibly have to shoot someone to gain compliance (on something even as routine as arresting a drunk). Imagine how big that’s suit will be when the officers states that he/she was trained to call for backup because he couldn’t arrest the person by himself but he didn’t have any. Good luck town in court!

The town should look at all its options including a complete contract with another agency for police services and make those totals public so the public can choose.

From the staff report, it looks like the Town will look into this in detail. However, I have a few concerns about contracting out with the CHP or the County Sheriff.
First, the staffing levels at the County Sheriff are not nearly adequate to provide 24/7 service in ML. And even in the “good old days”, there was a substation located in Mammoth Lakes. I seriously doubt whether the Town could negotiate an agreement with the Sheriff’s office that would not include the costs of salary, benefits, retirement, supervision, and overhead for a much-expanded Sheriff’s department; the majority of which would be providing services in ML. I question whether this would actlually reflect savings over the current staffing. It would certainly result in less local control.

Contracting out for services doesn’t necessarily mean we’d save any money. Just my two cents worth.

If you think Mammoth was better in the 80s you’re blind. MMSA is so much better today with its multiple high speed chairs. In the 80s you had slow moving chairs and you had center pole chair at chair 1. You had to side step up the hill just to get on chair # 1. The cafeteria had cheap picknic tables and the food sucked. Today,you have great food, comportable seating, etc. In the 80’s ski patrol tore down our whimpy jumps for liability reasons, today the park will send you 100 feet in the air if you so desire. Our snow park is world renown and the best come here to practice. Also, in the 80s, snowboarding was not allowed. How great was that? Not to mention we have some of the best groomed runs around. I have been fortunate enough to ski at at least 15 ski resorts and Mammoth Mountain is honestly one of the best around. Give credit to our great acomplishments at our resort. We deserve it.

We just now have a big bill and we don’t need to cut cops or whitemore pool. We may need to look at the 5 million for descretionary funds from transportation, housing, tourism, Measure R and Measure U funds. The time is now to make the hard decisions that the council is too gutless to make. Law enforcement is an essential service whether you admit it or not.

Familyguy- You are totally missing the point. It’s not about MMSA. MMSA rocks and always has. TOML has become a complete joke over the last 30 years. It’s a community completely ran by ignorant and arrogant idiots, elected by ignorant and arrogant locals. Thank God the same people don’t control things up the road at MMSA.

Rusty & company have done a stellar job, especially when compared to the TOML clown council.

Every voting citizen within TOML is their own worse enemy. They continue to get the government they elect and deserve.

Mammoth Mtn. Is DONE DEAN FINNISHED Cancel Christmas…just like June Mtn. the writing is on the wall, The Economy is only going to Get Worse and Worse 🙂 this u can b sure of and as soon as the War with IRAN starts the price of gas and Deisel will be $6 – $8 dollars a gallon, oh it’s coming and sooon 🙂

One person’s “negative view” can also be called “cockeyed realism.”
The mega-wealthy (ski resort CEOs included) and their rich pals look after the other members of a club most of us don’t belong to.
It’s almost as if they are deliberately pushing the boundaries as they have people believing in trickle-down economics B.S. If a person complains, they are called “Communists” or just plain “bad Americans.”

deep pocket L.A.snobs running a little town in the sierras,its a conflict between the underpaid locals.who ski and love the atmosphere created by the mountains,fresh air and peace,theyll put up with little pay just to live here,then you have the money grubbing,nose in the air and basically uncool, rich….you know whats making decisions only to stuff their pockets,believe me i worked for a rich idiot who ended up being mayor,he hated the locals,and fit into the sierras like a turd in a punch bowl,and as far as i can see,it aint gonna get any better!

I agree Ferdinand.
As long as deep pocket politicians can trick the masses into voting for the mega-wealthy expecting a trickle-down thing, the economic situation in Mammoth will not get any better. There will always be a huge disparity between the rich skiiers and those that pick up their garbage and wax their skis.
Time for some collective bargaining? You know. Walk-outs. Strikes. That sort of thing.

Mark and Big Al
Let me educate you.
Up most importance is officer safety and public safely.
It would be cost effective to have the Sheriff’s Department in Mammoth Lakes, but, MONO County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t work 24 / 7. That means if you are a victim of a violent crime after midnight you will not have quick police response meaning your safety or the safety of others.
CHP’s main responsibility is traffic enforcement. CHP will assist MLPD and or Sheriff’s if asked. But like the Sheriff’s Department they don’t work 24 / 7.
You mentioned something about having only one officer and or one supervisor on duty. Without getting into details re: violent crimes in progress or other related crimes, it would be foolish for an officer to respond without backup.
Both of you don’t really understand the job. You’re not the one entering a house or bank looking for an armed suspect(s). You’re not the one breaking up a domestic violence dispute, which can become volatile. A simple traffic stop can be unpredictable. It’s easy for you to criticizes, complain and judge what police officers do or don’t do. Bottom line, even after all the criticism the police still respond to any and all calls for the public.
How is one officer going to assist you and others when winter arrives? Once again, 2:00 am in the morning and you drive into a snow bank or get into a traffic accident, who do you call? I know the answer.
If you want to learn more, sign up for a ride-a-long with any agency.

Um Really, it is what I was eluding to .. so save me the education please .. I know the utmost importance is safety, not just officer safety, that is just as important as the citizen’s safety.

Agreed about Sherriff and CHP coverage except that … CHP does cover 24-7. They only have two officers on like midnight to 6, the two officers usually patrol in one unit, last I knew, unless they have changed that.

I am not an LEO, you’re right, but I do understand a lot about the job, more than you think I do. I was supporting the chief in his comments in regard to cuts putting a single officer on duty at times, especially late night/early morning hours.

I Commented with a question, that with the cuts, will it only be one officer on duty say, 2 to 6 am, with no supervisor, just an officer doing duty, or is there a supervisor, a Sargent or lieutenant on duty, in addition to a dispatcher?

If you have an officer on duty, on beat, or in the filed, you have to have a dispatcher on duty. Dispatchers can call back up .. from CHP, within the department, or the S/O.

As I said, one officer on duty is hangin it out if the stuff hits the fan without any on duty back up. Stuff can happen now!

As I said before and I will reiterate … I am not anti law enforcement, I have my issues with it, mainly on an individual basis, like everything in life, there are asses in every crowd.

If you would have read my posts on this subject, you would have seen I agree with what you’re saying and you would have seen it in the innuendo in one of the posts you quoted.

I understand the anti LEO sentiment, some just have to bitch about anything and everything, mostly it is an authority issue, me I just don’t like officers that think they are something on a stick, it messes it up for the good ones out there.